Calvinism in College Football

[Neighbor2972]

Unfortunately the playoff makes everyone too much money so they won't get rid of it. While expanding to 8 won't 'fix' the issue of the same 3 teams winning every year, it will at least fix the narrative problem of CFB.

Because right now the media has made the playoff the only thing that matters, and the only real discussion is deciding between which 3-4 teams deserve to get the 4 spot and the honor of getting throttled by Bama or Clemson. At least if there's 8 teams, more teams have something to play for later into the season and we get to talk about more things than the same 4 teams every year. It would be a lot more fun if we got to talk about Cincinnati for a week instead of Notre Dame.

It won't change the end result, but the process would be more bearable.

 

[Fishpo31]

Eight team model is good, 16 is better, but in reading this, I can't escape the thought that no matter what they do, we will get a yearly final four out of the same four SEC schools (Bama, Georgia, Florida, LSU) with TOSU, Clemson, maybe Okie on occasion. They should call it "the tournament for schools that care about football"...8 or 16 would get us (PAC12) a seat at the kids table, but...same as it ever was.

 

[RaceBannon]

Fans tend to prefer dynasties

Fans don't want Cinderella to make it past the 2nd weekend in the big dance

Fans root for ITT and the New York Yankees

Daddy what's ITT?

 

[YellowSnow]

Eight team model is good, 16 is better, but in reading this, I can't escape the thought that no matter what they do, we will get a yearly final four out of the same four SEC schools (Bama, Georgia, Florida, LSU) with TOSU, Clemson, maybe Okie on occasion. They should call it "the tournament for schools that care about football"...8 or 16 would get us (PAC12) a seat at the kids table, but...same as it ever was.

The 16 FCS model is just my pipe dream mind you, but I think the Pac could do well in such a set up. I think if you win your Power 5 conference you are guaranteed a top 5 seeds and thus a 1st round home game. The 2nd or 3rd place SEC team would just love having to come play in Eugene or Seattle in December. This would be a beautiful thing.

 

[1to392831weretaken]

Expanding the playoff doesn't solve the problem. It's not like having eight teams in the playoffs will suddenly make Alabama not rape teams four through eight. What we're seeing in college football is human nature and capitalism in action. Remove all barriers to competition, and eventually one corporation will rule them all. Every time. If you're a fan of any racing series, you've seen a team/factory dominate to the point where rules have to be made to achieve competitive balance.

Eliminating the playoffs and going back to the way things were would have a chance of fixing college football (for fans of all but a handful of programs) after a while, as regional powerhouses would get a perhaps undeserved bump in the polls. Not only will that genie never be put back in the bottle, but it's not even a for-sure solution.

Professional sports leagues have the blueprint for success: competitive balancing. In college sports, the only real lever there would be scholarship limits. Just like the Super Bowl champ picks last, if you want competitive balance in CFB, you've gotta start reducing scholarship limits for programs in various tiers of the postseason rankings. This will never happen, though, so enjoy a decade of Alabama, Clemson, and Ohio State winning bigly.

I need everybody to understand how drunk I was when I conceived of and typed out this plan to save college football. Not pants-shitting drunk, but that may have just been dumb luck. I just read this, vaguely recalling typing it, and I'm here to beat my chest at how coherent it is.

That was a 15-chin post adjusting for the 1:33 am poasting handicap.

 

[RoadDawg55]

You're never putting the genie back in the bottle. Expand to 8 or this status quo will maintain forever.

Expand to 8 and you’ll at least see some upsets and every now and then see a different team in the final 4 and championship game.

 

[dnc]

You're never putting the genie back in the bottle. Expand to 8 or this status quo will maintain forever.

Expand to 8 and you’ll at least see some upsets and every now and then see a different team in the final 4 and championship game.

bingo

 

[BleachedAnusDawg]

I don't think the size of the tournament is going to change much of the results. The best PAC champ in recent memory was UW in 16 and we did not physically match up with Bama.

Without hard caps on coaching salary, some form of scholarship restrictions to stop oversigning, and revenue sharing across all programs (expanding on the bowl game revenue payout model) nothing changes, IMO. If CFB is going to be set up and run like a junior NFL, which it now is, it should have the same types of rules in place to encourage some semblance of parity.

The current setup is detrimental to the overall health of the sport and the ability of all programs to survive. "Beat them on the field" mantra is a tired trope that excuses the destruction of CFB that is occurring thanks to the Bama model.